Echoes (Imperfection 'verse)
by Macx
Summary: movie-fic re-uploaded after it went missing. Sometimes it sucks to be Lennox. Really. Dealing with his physical changes isn't enough. Now he starts having weird flashes of something, too...


With nothing much to do all day but be Ratchet's guinea pig – not his favorite choice – or play assistant to Ironhide's weaponry experiments – only fun when things got blown up – Will Lennox had started to read up on his Cybertronian history. It wasn't so much boredom but the fact that he had become part of them so much by now, he wanted to know. His best friend was a huge alien robot and while Ironhide had no trouble downloading what he needed to know, Will had to ask, read up on it, or scrounge through data files that left him light-headed and in need of a box of aspirin.

Sam was a true Cybertron buff and he had even started to actively try and learn the language. It was easy for the kid since he only had to uplink to Bumblebee, apparently. Instant messenger, so to speak. He could read and write Cybertronian, but not speak it. Will was at a loss on every level. For Lennox it was a bit more complicated. He was no technopath and he had to do it the hard way.

"I can't download everything either," Sam had told him one night when they had met over a friendly game of chess. "Even the language download only helps me read and write. I can't speak it or understand what they're saying for now. Hearing and reading is completely different. Like French. That sucked in school."

Will understood, but he would have loved to be able to read the glyphs on his body for himself by now. Not that Sam was able to translate any more than Ironhide. Some were too ancient and those old languages were only in the main computer, downloaded from individual files. Ratchet was a tome of knowledge and he voluntarily gave Will brief lessons, then left him with massive amounts of data to go through. The only competent source of information was the main computer on the Ark, which contained at least some more rudimentary data, but it was inaccessible.

At least it passed the time. And it wasn't boring. Some files read like a science fiction novel.

So former Army Ranger Will Lennox turned into a history buff. He learned about the creation of Cybertron as the old scrolls told about it, the theories, the mysteries, even the beliefs. He wondered about Primus and the Covenant, about all the stories that surrounded the figures of the past which no one knew had ever really existed or had been made up.

He read about the peaceful existence of all mechs, about political and military structures, about explorations, about their science, and their wars.

But most of all he was looking into everything that concerned the Allspark. He knew Ratchet had read it all when trying to solve the mystery that was Will Lennox, but this was different to Will. He finally read it with his own eyes. He was that mystery, he was the Allspark, for all intents and purposes, even though he had no inkling about possible powers.

And it was incredible.

He pulled files from Sector Seven, stared for hours at the images of the cube that had been hidden under the Hoover Dam, tried to will his hybrid body to recognize something. But with the glyphs had come no knowledge. His brain was still his own. His memories contained nothing of an alien origin.

"Then why did you do it?" he asked himself, not expecting an answer.

The Allspark wasn't a sentient entity that communicated with him. It was nothing at all, just a shard of the whole, now absorbed inside him throughout whatever means. There was no medical explanation for it.

"Hey, Will, whatcha doin'?"

The lazy drawl had him look up and he smiled briefly at Jazz.

"Catching up on my ancient Cybertronian."

The specialist studied the files visible on screen. "Heavy stuff, man."

"I want to understand what this means." Lennox raised a hand and waved it a little. The runes were brightly visible.

"Some of that stuff is Allsparks etchings, Will. Even we don't know what it says. And the cube was always a mystery. It's like some cosmic code, a friend of mine once told me. We never understood it either."

Lennox sighed. "I know, I know. At least I'm getting the hang of Cybertronian writing. It also helps to understand your planet when it comes to this Allspark stuff."

A shrug. "You're not the cube."

"I know that. I keep telling that to some of you."

"Like Ratchet?" the Solstice teased, optics alight with mischief.

"Yeah."

"Don't mind Ratchet. When he's on a mission, he's on a mission. It'll settle when the mystery wears off. Like in a millennia or two."

Will groaned, then caught the grin. "Get out!" he muttered.

Jazz chuckled and did just that, but not without a mock salute.

Will returned to his studies and downloaded what he wanted to work with outside the base on his modified iPod. The little gadget could now store several dozen times more than the manufacturer had ever thought possible, thanks to Ratchet, and it was a valuable tool for Lennox. Like an audio book, the files were now stored and he could listen to the history of a planet he had never seen before. That the iPod also allowed video projection was another plus. Ratchet had really outdone himself. Sam had one, too. They came in handy.

A millennia or two, echoed through his head.

Had he inherited that of the Allspark, too? So far he had not felt any different in that regard, but he had just hit forty, so nothing exceptional in that regard. It might get tricky when he turned eighty and still looked forty.

Fun.

By the end of the following week, Lennox had finished translating some of the more frequent runes. Like Ironhide said they formed simple words. Why he had 'honor', 'warrior' and 'spirit' on his forearms was anyone's guess. The writing scrolling over one shoulder, and which Ironhide told him were ancient texts, changed now and then. The runes grew less frequent when he was in Protoform, and those visible then were completely different. Those were only Allspark glyphs.

No one could explain why. No one had any inkling as to what the Allspark had done to him.

The fact that he displayed the names of the mechs that touched him changed and became more mysterious. Ironhide's name was almost invisible around his wrist, like a delicate bracelet. The mech in question didn't comment, but there was a strange expression in his optics when he saw it.

Will decided not to ask for now.

The visit to the Hoover Dam facility was something of a huge event, Lennox mused. Security was even higher than at the President's visit and none of his steps were ever without supervision. The damage the structure had received throughout the Decepticon attack and later Megatron's flight had been chalked up to a terrorist attack.

Since the shut-down, no one had really come here. A few workers to break down machines and carry out whatever was still salvageable. Most of it was beyond repair anyway. Data files had been transferred, the rooms had been locked, and now it was an empty, cavernous room.

A place where the Allspark had been for decades.

Whatever Will hoped to find, he had no idea if it was really here.

Walking through the dusty debris, boots crunching gravel and metal underneath, he wondered what it must have been like for those who had laid eyes on the Allspark all those decades ago. He and his men had only seen the finished product decades later, had had little time to really process what they were looking at.

He hadn't come here alone. Ironhide was his constant shadow and Jazz had volunteered to come along, too. He was curious. It meant that Barricade was probably near-by as well, though Lennox hadn't seen him.

The old catwalk and the two gigantic cranes that had surrounded the immense cube were still standing there like some weird piece of giant art. There were metal tubes, wires, shards of glass, giant spot lights, tanks of whatever contents, and more. A huge factory building without its prime prize. The cube had decreased size at Bumblebee's command and nothing else had been affected. Will still remembered that moment. It had been incredible to watch, so far out of this world…

Lennox started to explore. It was a massive place, too large to look at every nook and cranny in just a day, but he was mostly interested in the place where the Allspark had been for such a long time. He kept an eye on the runes on his body, which were appearing only moderately so far.

Laid back glyphs, he thought with dark humor.

He wondered about residual radiation and finally turned to Jazz, who was never far behind him. Ironhide had taken up a watcher's post near the exit. The human security detail had fanned out.

"Can you pick up any residual Allspark radiation?" Lennox asked out loud.

Jazz scanned, then shrugged. "A little. Very, very faint. It was more pronounced near the labs where they used the energy to experiment."

Will shuddered at that. He had witnessed the brief life and violent death of the Nokia.

Standing in the middle of the empty spot where the cube had been, he tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling so far above. Millions of tons of water were above them. The perfect cover.

He looked at himself and found both his wrists encircled in runes, snaking over his hand, around his thumb, running along his palm and disappearing once more. His left hand had a line of tiny writing down toward and along his pinky. They weren't really moving, more like pulsing almost imperceptibly in place.

Jazz's optics focused in on the writing and he seemed to frown.

"What?" Will asked quietly.

"Those are the first words of the creation scroll, the oldest knowledge we have and which every Cybertronian knows inside out. It's how we believe our world came to be."

"Oh."

There he went being a walking bible again, Will thought with resignation. He hated those moments. He wasn't an overly religious man and this freaked him out. The runes disappeared and single symbols took their place. Will recognized them immediately. Cosmic code. Gibberish. Never translated.

"Maybe I'm reacting to that last bit of energy here," he muttered.

"Maybe."

He continued to walk, going deeper and deeper into the cavern. It was cool down here. Dark and cool. It was a nice break from the desert. The ceiling was covered in concrete, forming a half-dome. It was going another mile into the rock, then ended.

Here it was cool and quiet, and mostly dark. Lennox felt gentle vibrations all around him. The last energy traces of the Allspark. He could feel them. Closing his eyes he followed the particles, seeing them in his mind's eye…

_…as part of what he had been before – before he had been just a shard, before he had merged with the human. He felt his old power, the strength and the limitless life energy within. He felt himself touching everything, giving life. He seemed to drift, become more, soaking in the energies of before._

_Echoes._

_Ancient and recent echoes._

_The whole planet seemed to be filled with them, concentrating in this cave deep underneath the dam that kept his presence a secret._

_Suddenly there was Cybertron. And he was there. In the middle. Space was all around him. A wormhole swallowed him._

_He was hurtling through space._

_Earth. A new planet. He crashed. He remained lost. He watched the planet evolve. He was buried under water and rock. He was lost again._

_Contact._

_Flares of energy, a human life force touching him. Explosions of energy. He gave life, however briefly, with violent force. He touched the human life, changed it forever._

_And then he went up in a brilliant blaze of limitless energy. It surged through him with such force, Will almost couldn't breathe. He felt himself fly apart, become more, become less, be all and nothing. He felt himself tearing through a spark, a spark he had created, extinguishing it, and then he was no more._

_Just a small part now. Tiny compared to what he had been._

_Still alive._

_Pulsing._

_Waiting…_

"Will!"

Lennox's eyes snapped open. His lungs filled with air and he almost sobbed in relief that he was human, had these lungs. For a moment he was disoriented, unable to understand where he was, why he felt so small and vulnerable, then he became aware of the mechanoid next to him.

"Jazz?" he rasped, head swimming.

"Man, you're freaking me out!" the specialist exclaimed.

"What happened?"

He felt woozy, with knees like jelly, and when he raised one hand to touch his head he noticed the changes. His skin had turned the gray-silver-gold-metallic of the Allspark, the runes deepening as if engraved. That meant his eyes had the ice blue optic color now, too.

Fuck.

Jazz had knelt down, looking worried. "You were suddenly very distant, something started to glow and the runes began to race like crazy over your skin. And then you looked like that. You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Damn. He had lost control. Because of the Allspark energy remnants. Taking a deep breath Will tried to calm his nerves, to revert back. Jazz waited, never taking his eyes off him, and finally he looked more human. Still with runes, but more human.

"Energy signatures?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah. I wasn't really aware of them until… well, until now. And then it was overwhelming."

Heavy steps announced the arrival of Ironhide who looked none too happy. Will tried to say something, but the large hand picking him up stopped them. He was raised to Ironhide's eye-level and closely inspected.

"You changed," the mech said. "And my scanners show trace energy all around you."

"Seems like my Allspark part felt right at home," Lennox said with a sigh. "It was weird."

Jazz snorted. "Downright freaky."

"Welcome to my life."

The silver Autobot grinned.

"We should leave," Ironhide announced. "They're getting twitchy back there and I don't like this place."

Neither did Will any more. It felt like a prison cell. And whatever he had felt before, it was now gone, absorbed, somewhere inside him. The cave was just a cave now. Dark and full of bad echoes. He shivered a little as one touched him. The death of so many innocent machines created by Sector Seven. Without the blanket of the Allspark energy, these memories now rose to the surface of this place.

"Let's go," he said harshly.

He had witnessed the death of the Nokiabot and it had touched something inside him at the time. He had witnessed his men getting killed by a metal scorpion and a gigantic robot. Still, the hatred had not been transferred to the little Nokia. It hadn't been evil.

Now it was a ghost, like so many. It resided here as an echo. Will couldn't differentiate between the individuals; he felt the pain of them all like a sledge-hammer between the eyes.

"Will?" Ironhide rumbled as he winced a little.

"I'm okay. I just want to leave."

Ironhide set him down, aware that Will didn't feel like getting carried, and they walked back to the main tunnel. The Autobots transformed and Will quickly got into the Topkick, then they drove off.

No one stopped them.

Lennox had dropped off to sleep on the way back and Ironhide had simply kept a close optic on his friend. The runes were rather pronounced and he could read some of them. They were in Cybertronian. Strangely enough they were file names. Like Will had picked up a data file with the names and now the runes were displaying them. Ironhide stored that information.

Will moved restlessly, then muttered something. His hands twitched in his sleep and Ironhide didn't like the lines on the human's face. He had learned a lot about humans in the past years and that expression was almost painful.

"Will," he said softly.

There was a sharp intake of breath and another involuntary movement.

"Lennox!"

Brown eyes snapped open. A blue light was in their depths. It was a pinpoint, intense and startling. Ironhide felt his worry multiply. He sent a message to Jazz to go on ahead; he needed some alone-time to talk to Lennox. Or just be there.

"'hide?" the human stammered, blinking. The blue light stayed, only losing a little in intensity.

"Yes. You were dreaming."

"Oh." Lennox scrubbed a hand over his face and leaned back against the seat. "Damn."

"What happened down there?" Ironhide asked.

"I don't really know… or can explain. It was… weird. I could feel the Allspark's presence, that it had been there, and then I was there as well. I lived its life, so to speak." Lennox shook his head. "So strange. And then I woke out of my stupor… it was gone. The energy was no longer there. The cave felt empty."

Ironhide was silent, just listening. He was tempted to scan, but he had learned to recognize when Will was on the defensive – like right now – and his scans would avail to nothing.

"But there were echoes. Of what Sector Seven had done. What it had used the Allspark for." He bumped his head against the headrest several times as if it could dislodge the feelings. "I'm not a technopath," Lennox said, almost to himself. "I shouldn't feel this. But it's like the Allspark can sense all it created. I can sense it now. It was so… senseless. All those deaths… no spark, no true birth, just coming online and caged in and afraid and so terrified of everything."

He shivered again and Ironhide sent a soft hum through his cab. He had discovered some time ago that it served almost like a touch for humans. Especially distraught humans. He could sympathize with what Lennox felt. Had felt.

Will smiled sadly.

"Seems like I absorbed the energy, Ironhide. What was left inside. It felt like the Allspark was simply waiting for it."

"And more."

"Huh?"

"Your body is showing file names. At least what I could see."

Lennox blinked. "The runes?"

"Yes. Hands, arms and face. There might be more."

"Is that the hint to get naked?" the human chuckled, though it sounded forced. Will was under a lot of stress and no military training had prepared him for that.

Ironhide rumbled, which made Lennox smile even more. He stripped off his shirt and Ironhide found the complete list running over his right shoulder. It was pulsing gently.

"Any idea?" Will asked.

"Not yet, but I will look into it. At first glance it looks like something from your own world."

"Sector Seven files?"

"Possible."

Lennox redressed, looking at his almost excessively marked hands. They were a mirror of his upheaval.

"Do you want to go back to the base or somewhere else?" Ironhide suddenly asked.

"Where could I go?" came the resigned sigh. "Even a beer is out of the question."

"Do you require alcohol?" the mech asked quizzically.

His friend laughed. "Require, no. But it helps to forget for a while."

Ironhide was silent, contemplating the statement. He knew the effect of alcohol on humans, that it numbed the senses for a while

"Forget it," Lennox said into the silence. "Let's go back to the base. I think Epps has some beer stashed away and I really need one right now."

They silently continued on the way back to the base. Ironhide watched Lennox stare out the window, apparently lost in thought. No one could help the hybrid with this, even if the mech wished he could.

That evening Will emptied several beers with Epps in Epps' private quarters. Lennox didn't get drunk. It had grown harder and harder to get drunk on alcohol ever since his change. It took some really heavy stuff to even get him tipsy.

Fuck. He hated his change at those times.

While Epps had fallen asleep and would probably regret the evening, Will had walked through the quiet base, the alcohol processing through his system with no ill effects on him at all. It was no great surprise that he found Ironhide outside.

"Got it out of your system?" the weapons specialist rumbled.

He smiled dimly. "I guess."

"Good."

And that was it.

Will remained up till dawn, not the least bit tired. When life began to stir in the base, he returned inside to start coffee.

Epps would sure as hell need some.


End file.
